When Father Paul MacNeil, Chair of the Niagara Catholic District School Board, welcomed nearly 2,000 students from the board’s eight schools for their Graduation Celebration, he quoted French Jesuit priest and philosopher Pierre Teilharde de Chardin, and urged them to harness the Church’s power of love.
“Someday, after mastering the winds and the waves and the tides of gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire,” he said, before urging students to light theworld on fire as they begin their next journey.
This annual event, held this year at the Scotiabank Convention Centre on May 18, is seen as the unofficial end to 14 years of Catholic education for the board’s graduating students, marking a signature event in the Niagara Catholic calendar.
Bishop Gerard Paul Bergie also addressed the graduates. Faith, he said, “is to be an instrument to promote tolerance and understanding, to be a bridge-builder, and I believe that at Niagara Catholic, that is what you have experienced, and I hope that from this experience, you will bring it to the world.”
The day concluded with the presentation of the Niagara Catholic Student Senate Awards. This year’s recipients, chosen randomly from a group of applicants identified only by their Ontario Education Number, were Brianna Sirotnik from Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School, and Emma Mete from Notre College School.
Congratulations to Niagara Catholic’s Class of 2017!
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